Women & Science shines spotlight on plant biology

The audience shares a laugh at the third annual Salk Women & Science event.

The theme was plant biology on
March 19, when more than 70 female
business and community leaders gathered
for the Institute's third Women & Science
event. Showcasing research being conducted
by female Salk faculty, the afternoon program
was a rare opportunity for attendees to learn
about discoveries that may shape the future
of food and fuel production.

Following a welcome by Catherine Rivier,
professor emerita of the Clayton Foundation
Laboratories for Peptide Biology, Joanne Chory,
professor and director of the Plant Molecular
and Cellular Biology Laboratory, gave a talk
titled "Seven billion and counting: How do
we feed and fuel the planet?" In addition to
discussing her lab's research on plants' signaling
pathways, which enable them to detect changes
in sunlight, she spoke about her team's efforts
to discover the molecular triggers that control
plant growth, which has the potential to vastly
improve agriculture yields.

Julie Law, a new assistant professor in the
Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory,
then described her work to elucidate the
mechanisms by which epigenetic modifications
are translated into stable expressions—an area
of plant biology that is poorly understood and
that impacts gene regulation, imprinting,
genome activity and development.

The 2013 Women & Science program is
generously underwritten by Union Bank. For
more information on the Women & Science
program, contact Betsy Reis, director of donor
relations, at 858.453.4100 x1426 or by email
at breis@salk.edu.